Surprising results: Maricopa County GOP straw poll

Platform Republicans win the day

The balloting at the Maricopa County Republican Committee’s mandatory meeting Saturday, returned some interesting results.

There were two straightforward questions asked. The assembled precinct committeemen were given an opportunity to vote for their first and second choice for U.S. President — along with the least acceptable for the office.

The same options were given for the U.S. Senate seat, now open through the retirement of Jon Kyl.

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42 Responses to Surprising results: Maricopa County GOP straw poll

Flake knocked out by Cardon? Great news!! This is a straw poll of political activists, which speaks volumes regarding their indignation at the anointing of the field team (Flake) by the establishment (Kyl and McCain). Please run a good race, Wil Cardon. We need to disprove the notion that the elite insiders rule us and our party.

My thoughts as well. What was most interesting to me was that Jeff Flake couldn’t bother himself to attend the meeting yesterday and sent political operative Mary Peters as his ineffective stand-in. All of the other Republican congressmen representing us in Maricopa County (Trent Franks, Ben Quayle, David Schweikert) addressed the crowd. I hope the voters remember his repeated slights and important missed votes in congress. He thinks this senate seat is his for the taking. I pray Wil Cardon (who did show up) knocks this arrogant and untruthful guy off his perch. By the way, Cardon was met with a rousing applause. Flake stand-in, Mary Peters, was not.

How about that standing ovation for Sheriff Joe Arpaio when he walked up to speak and also when he concluded his speech? He brought the house down! Also tops among the crowd of elected precinct committeemen were Attorney General Tom Horne and County Attorney Bill Montgomery,

Don Stapley had a hell of a lot of nerve showing his face (with that dead squirrel on his head) after participating so fully with the democrats and open borders activists in bringing about the recall of Senate President Russell Pearce. He was behind the scenes the whole time, until election night when he was there celebrating Pearce’s recall. I say we send him and his dead squirrel toupee home.

WOW! Those are revealing numbers.
Not only has Wil Cardon pulled ahead of The Flake, Ron Paul won also…..as the LEAST ACCEPTABLE presidential candidate among the elected Republican precinct committeeman at the county meeting. And how telling that not only did Flake deem it unnecessary to attend, but none of his operatives were in sight. There were a few teenager recruits, but no one of substance attached to his campaign, most notably the bottle blonde candidate himself!! Let’s not forget.

The Republican PC have a handle on the political situation unmatched by the supposed insiders, as evidenced by these polling results. I’m proud to serve as an elected PC. My only regret is that I waited so long to get involved. Now I’m busily recruiting other conservatives. We are facing the most critical election in our lives and we need to be mobilized to keep our country from becoming Greece — or worse.

Great to see the only Member-At-Large incumbents (Hobbs, Grimm and Schultz) running were reelected. Their significant actions over the last term included endorsing conservative Republicans Bill Montgomery and Russell Pearce over Liberal Republicans Rick Romley and Jerry Lewis respectively.

This shows those paying close attention, PCs, appreciate Republican Party officers helping to elect conservative public office candidates. Something we should keep in mind about the establishment favoring J Duane Rhodes match up against the grassroots conservative Chad Palmer for AZ GOP third Vice Chairman. We certainly would not get those kinds of conservative votes to endorse candidates from the John McCain favoring J Duane (John) Rhodes.

Gov. Brewer didn’t raise your taxes. The tax, which has a sunset date, went to a vote of the people. Your friends, neighbors and relatives voted it in. I suppose you preferred janet napolitano on the 9th floor? Are you nuts?

Brewer wanted to raise the tax. just didn’t have the courage. She, and some legislators knew that the state employees and other special interests would carry the day in an off year single ballot measure.
Government employees are always for higher taxes, the money goes directly into their pockets. Uh, or is it “For the children”?

If Bryan Hackbarth, Doug McKee, and Clair Van Steenwyk actually care about getting rid of Jeff Flake, they need to get out of the race and support Wil Cardon. Their egos will harm our chances of ousting Flake by siphoning off votes.

Hackbarth got a a single vote as first choice yesterday. It was likely his own. Doug McKee and Clair Van Steenwyk each garned votes in the 40’s out of the hundreds of ballots cast.

We just witnessed the power of a vote in the Iowa caucus. Santorum lost by only 8 votes. Those nitwits who voted for Jimmie Lee Deakins over conservative JD Hayworth actually helped elect the one guy they wanted to defeat: John McCain. The votes cast for Ross Perot elected Bill Clinton. What does it take for Republicans to learn that going off on tangents gives support to the wrong side and elects the very people they want to defeat?

Will Cardon is just now finding his pace. At the meeting he spoke well and has honed his delivery. The P.C.’s pay much closer attention to the political scene this early, and as time goes on the general public may very well catch up to the P.C.’s.
It does not look promising for Flake, he will need lots of money and feet on the ground. But…..Those feet belong to P.C.’s.

Unfortunately Flake has money and the contacts to get more. All of those years in congress have given him access to lobbyists and fundraisers. He’s just a younger ore insidious version of McCain. That’s why he’s winning the McKyl stamp of approval.

True, but Cardon has money too. He also will have the feet on the ground. He is also not a household name yet. We will see what happens, Cardon is the best shot that we have. He actually talks to the voters and attends the events. Lets watch Flake and see if he shows up at the state meeting.

Flake is going to win. It’s a done deal. He’s been endorsed by Paul Ryan, Club for Growth, and all the other fiscal conservatives that matter in the party. Money is pouring in from conservative and libertarian groups.

Only in AZ is Flake hated by certain one-issue people.

Immigration is a big issue amongst the grassroots, but not the larger GOP; it’s one of many issues and on the issues that matter most, Flake makes people very happy.

Flake is going to win the primary with at least 60% of the vote. You can take it to the bank. and I’m sorry if that gives you an ulcer, but that’s how it’s going to be …

Flake wouldn’t have “all of those years in congress” you mention if he had kept his vow to the voters not to serve more than three terms. He’s a liar on top of being an open borders RINO, who dismisses PCs as dirt under his feet. Let’s return the favor. he talks about his disdain for earmarks, but where the rubber meets the road, he happily supports Al Gore’s costly carbon issues that put the USA at a competative disadvantage in the global arena.

Ellsworth…WELL PUT, SIR!!! I’d have fewer problems with Mr. Flake…except that he LIED…then made excuses for it…now he’s using us PC’s as doormats…NEVER gettin’ MY Vote,bud! & MY Constituants’ll KNOW where I stand on him as well!!! Walkin’ my District with my Son’s DEFINITELY gonna’ be informative for them…

The reelection of Dan Grimm is a testament to how the MCRC is either clueless or lacking a moral compass. He overtly worked to get Olivia Cortes on the ballot, only to stump for Russell Pearce at his district meeting a few days after. His moral relativism shows he is only a political opportunist, playing tribal politics instead of sticking to honorable principles. Congratulations MCRC!

Also, good luck trying to oust Jeff Flake by voting in a member of his finance committee. With the way things are looking, this blog is going to have another 6 years of talking bad about Rep. Flake. Excuse me…he’ll be called Sen. Flake at that point.

If Wil Cardon is serious about this race…all he needs to do is stress how he differs from Flake on illegal immirgration and the border and then start packing his bags for D.C. If not, then he can spare us all another Conlin/Steiger primary.

Unfortunately, I don’t put much creedence in the Presidential straw poll results. Why? Most attendees didn’t know where to turn in their ballot or didn’t think it was that important.

Realist, yes you are so right. I talked to Wil shortly after he got finished with his well delivered speech and told him that he is going to have to stress the boarder. He did not mention a word about it when he talked.
He told me that his position on the whole illegal immigration situation is on his web site. I told him that he needs to talk about it every day to every crowd. He agreed and said that he would begin to do that.
He seemed very willing to listen and consider advice from attendees like me. A real good sign. I think Wil is going to make an impact and has a great chance to win. He needs help and support all of you Flake foes!!

Cardon was Flake’s biggest supporter until he decided he wanted to run for office himself. He gave the maximum contribution to Flake during the whole immigration debate in 2007 and was even on his US Senate steering committee.

Try not to be so gullible when a candidate is only telling you what you want to hear.

Van the Radio Man has been telling that “Cardon was on Flake’s Senate Committee” lie all over town. It isn’t true and it has been several years since Cardon gave Flake any money according to the FEC reports. Little wonder Van finished second as “Least Acceptable”. The truth matters to the PCs. Don’t fall for the lies.

You got it nearly right. Those who know Flake best are the ones who despise him. He’s a dangerous phony. If he’s elected to the US Senate, it will be for an interminable SIX YEAR term. No term should be that long. Flake needs to honor his term limit pledge and go back to being an out of the closet Libertarian instead of a fake Republican.

I was musing at the County GOP meeting whether Flake couldn’t be there because his daughter might be competing in the Miss America Pageant that evening in Las Vegas. He’s used that kind of excuse before to miss important votes.

Very funny, Hagar. That was my first thought when Jeff Flake was nowhere to be seen at the County GOP meeting. Like his mentor, John McCain, the guy is a practiced liar.

Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin listed the eight turncoat Republicans who voted with the democrats on the important bill, (or by their absense, allowed it to pass without making it a priority!) calling out the two Republicans who weren’t available to vote: Arizona’s own Jeff Flake, whose daughter was in the talent segment of a beauty contest — although the pageant finals, including hers, were not even scheduled until the weekendhttp://michellemalkin.com/2009/06/26/the-8-cap-and-tax-republicans/
and John Sullivan of Oklahoma, who was undergoing alcohol rehab. Democrat US Rep Patrick Kennedy was pulled out of rehab to cast his vote.

Cardon’s failure to mention the border issue was very telling. We did not have his web site in front of us and his past is a fact in his support of Flake. If you want to be sure the Mormon’s get a vote just pit two of them against each other. You will have a winner either way.
Sorry but both are not straight up. I think it is disrespectful to show up dressed for the construction lot at a county meeting where you hope to get votes.. Poor taste for any candidate.

You should at least wait until Cardon has time to explain his switch and gets his sea legs. This is his first campaign, and seems open to suggestions. I hit him up on the not mentioning the border Saturday. He said that he should have and will in the future. If he does not pan out what have we lost??
To beat flake a candidate must have money and some connections. Do you have any suggestions as to who can beat Flake?

I agree, Sgt. The fact that Jeff Flake won as the LEAST ACCEPTABLE senate candidate shows that the elected PCs are paying attention. We’ve been duped by McCain and Kyl long enough and long to be represented by a conservative in the US Senate. Flake IS NOT that man.